Ebay question

amjustagirl

Hi, sold a dress on ebay for a £5 brand new and tagged (worth £25 new) and p&p came to £3.99. Buyer has emailed to say they have received the parcel and have seen i have only paid £2.60 postage. This has happened to me before but it's never bothered me. Would you pay the difference? Thanks

ballisticbrian

No - the postage and packing terms stated up front were your terms. If they bid, then they agreed to your terms.

amjustagirl

This is what i thought aswell. I did think the postage would be a bit more. It's not just the postage cost but packaging and my time!

iammumtoone

I have complained about high postage charges before, however I wouldn't in this case as the price of the stamp in not the whole story. On some occasions I have had people charge more than double the cost of the stamp. It is one of my ebay gripes people making money on postage as they are too tight to pay the ebay charges, this is not how it works.

You are in a difficult situation, if you do not offer to refund some of the amount you risk neg feedback but in my opinion the buyer is being unreasonable in this case. I would suggested advising them that the p+p charge is just just the cost of the stamp its packaging (but not if you used recycled) travel and time as well. See what they say and if they come back to you again.

amjustagirl

I've emailed the buyer back and explained to them the cost's involved. I am refusing to refund the buyer the difference as i won't be blackmailed into giving money back even if it does mean i will be given negative feedback. I have 100% feedback on over 200 items sold it's just a bit annoying. Will contacting ebay help if the buyer does leave me bad feedback, due to this person being unreasonable on this occasion?

soolin

I stand alone then, I think that much of a mark up is unreasonable and seller will be lucky to keep their seller dashboard intact if they make a habit of overcharging.

I think most sellers would keep around the £2.99 -£3.20 mark at tops rather than risk being restricted and getting stung with listing fees in future for being below standard on a private account.

I wouldn't be worried about a neg here but about stars, and no, eBay will consider it the buyers perogative to reflect your overcharge when they score you.

I would be checking your expanded dashboard if you often mark up by this amount, with so few sales you can't afford too many unhappy buyers.

Make-it-3

As a buyer I have often pondered on what the best thing is to do re postal overcharging.

I know you have to take the whole price into account when bidding on ebay, and sometimes postage mark up is quite obvious.

I usually avoid bidding on items where people say that postage includes for their "time" in going to the PO.

I always reflect my opinions in the star ratings and on a couple of occasions have mentioned it in my feedback. This week I actually gave neutral feedback because the mark up was three times the actual postage cost. Was I right?

I don't think I'd ask for a refund tho, I'd just feel very petty.

ballisticbrian

Would you buy something from the Mail on Sunday with £5.99 P&P and then quibble the cost with them after it arrives by a courier you can work the price out - or is it that these non-business sellers are supposed to be doing you a good turn?

soolin

ballisticbrian wrote: »

Would you buy something from the Mail on Sunday with £5.99 P&P and then quibble the cost with them after it arrives by a courier you can work the price out - or is it that these non-business sellers are supposed to be doing you a good turn?

Yes, people moan about postage all the time. I suspect that is why so many companies are going free postage now.

Just go look at the vent and warning board, people complaining About everything. The difference is that eBay specifically ask them to judge their experience of the sale and buyers will compare sellers.

Whilst buyers are given the power to reflect their dissatisfaction by leaving stars it is a risky decision to charge much more than stamp cost plus a bit for packaging.

ballisticbrian

Yes, but for example, we use franking with which there are numerous costs associated, the lease, expensive cartridges which work out 5p ink per impression, Impression labels, initial outlay on the machine, monthly service contract. On top of these fixed costs is the inevitable fines and also when the envelope slips and there's nothing printed, money goes deep into Royal Mail's coffers. Technically these are all postage costs and we haven't even got onto packaging.

plumface

Make-it-3 wrote: »

As a buyer I have often pondered on what the best thing is to do re postal overcharging.

I know you have to take the whole price into account when bidding on ebay, and sometimes postage mark up is quite obvious.

I usually avoid bidding on items where people say that postage includes for their "time" in going to the PO.

I always reflect my opinions in the star ratings and on a couple of occasions have mentioned it in my feedback. This week I actually gave neutral feedback because the mark up was three times the actual postage cost. Was I right?

I don't think I'd ask for a refund tho, I'd just feel very petty.

And leaving a neutral isnt being petty, after all you did agree to the price?